I really hate GNB with 3 carts and Double Down taking 2 carts

[xAFROx]

So I've been looking up videos and guides about current gnb since I'm currently moving away from my main SAM. I never looked up a guide or practiced anything about gnb before and generally made my own rotation by way of what felt comfortable to press in what order and majority of videos I watched thus far have basically stated gnb has no set rotation due to the way its cooldowns are, which sounds about right.

It is weird to me that folks throw double down and several other oGCDs between gnashing fang, delaying the majority of its continuation until the end.

So typically, when I hit No Mercy, I go sonic break-blasting zone-gnash1-cont-bow shock-gnash2-cont-rough divide-gnash3-cont-double down-rough divide-bloodfest-triple burst strike/hypervelocity

But I also noticed from the guides I've looked at, they typically start gnash with a single cartridge and then bloodfest. Something I'm trying to practice now that I've decided to switch mains, and it just feels awkward trying to fit all of that even though I'm at 2.43s

Anybody care to share if my burst is okay or not? I think the main issue I have is a weak opener since I never used tank for anything outside of normal msq content.

[Absurdity]

So I've been looking up videos and guides about current gnb since I'm currently moving away from my main SAM. I never looked up a guide or practiced anything about gnb before and generally made my own rotation by way of what felt comfortable to press in what order and majority of videos I watched thus far have basically stated gnb has no set rotation due to the way its cooldowns are, which sounds about right.

It is weird to me that folks throw double down and several other oGCDs between gnashing fang, delaying the majority of its continuation until the end.

So typically, when I hit No Mercy, I go sonic break-blasting zone-gnash1-cont-bow shock-gnash2-cont-rough divide-gnash3-cont-double down-rough divide-bloodfest-triple burst strike/hypervelocity

But I also noticed from the guides I've looked at, they typically start gnash with a single cartridge and then bloodfest. Something I'm trying to practice now that I've decided to switch mains, and it just feels awkward trying to fit all of that even though I'm at 2.43s

Anybody care to share if my burst is okay or not? I think the main issue I have is a weak opener since I never used tank for anything outside of normal msq content.

This is the old GnB sheet from before 6.2, with the changes to Bloodfest from 90 seconds to 2 minutes this will have changed slightly. You will no longer have any Bloodfest uses outside of your burst so there will be no Bloodfest in your 3 minute burst anymore but instead in your 2 minute, 4 minute, 6 minute, etc burst windows.

While GnB is quite flexible there are certain setups for your burst that you always want to perform.

You can adjust your rotation on a fight per fight basis to gain extra uses of your big hitters, but this is something more advanced and also heavily dependent on your party's killtime so you really shouldn't worry about it until the basic rotation has become muscle memory.

You generally always want to use Gnashing Fang, No Mercy and Bloodfest on cooldown to have them not drift out of party buffs, which is one of the reasons you usually Double Down early to empty your cartridges for Bloodfest.


As for your GCD, 2.43 should be fine. I personally think 2.40 feels the best but with the gear this raid tier the best we can get is unfortunately only 2.42 without losing out on damage. Anything 2.46 or faster should allow you to get the necessary 9 GCDs under No Mercy, anything slower than 2.46 and you will not be able to get those 9 GCDs. There will also be situations where your last Hypervelocity will simply fall out of No Mercy and there is nothing you can do about it.

[Mithron]

Right, pressing No Mercy after starting Gnashing Fang feels wrong and makes me hate it so much. It's incredibly clunky. I also don't think it feels good to start Gnashing Fang then go immediately into Double Down and Sonic Break before finishing the rest of the combo, but oftentimes in pugs is necessary for aligning raid buffs. Not being able to fit every Hyperverlocity in No Mercy window is also clunky and shows changes should be made. Of course this is just my subjective personal opinion, but it makes GNB feel so much worse than it did at 80.

[xAFROx]

This is the old GnB sheet from before 6.2, with the changes to Bloodfest from 90 seconds to 2 minutes this will have changed slightly. You will no longer have any Bloodfest uses outside of your burst so there will be no Bloodfest in your 3 minute burst anymore but instead in your 2 minute, 4 minute, 6 minute, etc burst windows.

While GnB is quite flexible there are certain setups for your burst that you always want to perform.

You can adjust your rotation on a fight per fight basis to gain extra uses of your big hitters, but this is something more advanced and also heavily dependent on your party's killtime so you really shouldn't worry about it until the basic rotation has become muscle memory.

You generally always want to use Gnashing Fang, No Mercy and Bloodfest on cooldown to have them not drift out of party buffs, which is one of the reasons you usually Double Down early to empty your cartridges for Bloodfest.


As for your GCD, 2.43 should be fine. I personally think 2.40 feels the best but with the gear this raid tier the best we can get is unfortunately only 2.42 without losing out on damage. Anything 2.46 or faster should allow you to get the necessary 9 GCDs under No Mercy, anything slower than 2.46 and you will not be able to get those 9 GCDs. There will also be situations where your last Hypervelocity will simply fall out of No Mercy and there is nothing you can do about it.

Mhm, that lines up with everything I'd been hearing, and yeah I actually went and found that image a month ago, but I hadn't made the decision to fully go gnb at that point. Now I have and nobody has made a similar chart for 6.2 specifically aside from maybe a few videos, which I did try to save for the sake of practice.

I whacked a striking dummy for about 10 minutes and it just feels clunky considering how I've played since unlocking the job. But I felt a similar clunkiness when I tried improving my opener for SAM, even if that came more naturally to me.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try and keep at it when next I log on.

[Absurdity]

Mhm, that lines up with everything I'd been hearing, and yeah I actually went and found that image a month ago, but I hadn't made the decision to fully go gnb at that point. Now I have and nobody has made a similar chart for 6.2 specifically aside from maybe a few videos, which I did try to save for the sake of practice.

I whacked a striking dummy for about 10 minutes and it just feels clunky considering how I've played since unlocking the job. But I felt a similar clunkiness when I tried improving my opener for SAM, even if that came more naturally to me.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try and keep at it when next I log on.

Yeah as far as I know no chart exists for 6.2 yet, your best bet is to join the Balance Discord or regularly check here https://www.thebalanceffxiv.com/ for any updates.

[Reimmi]

GNB is completely fine as it is, GNB already does a significant amount of damage it does NOT need it's burst window extended. Three cartridge management is actually pretty brain dead, means less burst strikes in your unbuffed phase, and Double Down costing 2 cartridges is fair for the amount of damage it does in a single hit, it's a thing called balance that other tanks also have to deal with.
If you go into a No Mercy window without three cartridges that's on the player failing, not the job, being bad design.

? lower the damage increase to compensate the duration increase then?
you act like they'd up the duration with no reduction

[CidHeiral]

Endwalker GNB is awesome. Rotation feels smooth as butter. Going back to the level 80 rotation when I get synced feels boring now.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

? lower the damage increase to compensate the duration increase then?
you act like they'd up the duration with no reduction

Honestly, I actually have 0 faith in SE ability to balance jobs this expansion, with the chasm in dps difference across all roles especially when ShB was so well balanced in comparison, so honestly if they took your idea, they'd still manage to buff GNB damage even more.

[Mithron]

Endwalker GNB is awesome. Rotation feels smooth as butter. Going back to the level 80 rotation when I get synced feels boring now.

Using Gnashing Fang first then No Mercy while still not getting every Hypervelocity feels "smooth as butter?" Doing your natural rotation makes your No Mercy and Gnashing Fang window 2-3s late after your GCD feels smooth as butter?

[xAFROx]

Using Gnashing Fang first then No Mercy while still not getting every Hypervelocity feels "smooth as butter?" Doing your natural rotation makes your No Mercy and Gnashing Fang window 2-3s late after your GCD feels smooth as butter?

Why would you ever use gnashing fang vefore no mercy? I know it's supposed to be used on cooldown, but if you're placing it right, it should always be up in time to fit within a no mercy window.

I really dislike how slow the gcd overall is in Endwalker so far, but even at my slowest of 2.47s I was able to fit all my cartridge spenders in it. Although I never used them in the order most folks would say to.